These are things I’ve found interesting for February 17th from 00:59 to 09:51:

Infinite Ammo » Blog Archive » Marian: From 3D to 2D – I'm proud of Alec. There is a big meme left over from the days of console dominance that 3D is better than 2D…that once you've had your childish fun making 2D games, you will one day be allowed to make real professional 3D games. But this meme if bunk.

Some games benefit from 3D and some are better with 2D. The <b>cost</b> of 3D is often immense, easily 4-10X the cost of 2D. We think of the cost as being purely a production cost: if you add more artists, you can mitigate the issue. However, there is also a large design cost: Iteration becomes slower and the design often fails to converge. There is also management cost: With more people, the process of making the game becomes less agile and it is more expensive to maintain a shared vision.

It takes a lot of soul searching to learn these lessons. So many indies just 'do what is natural' without thinking. Unfortunately, that often means they are simply thoughtlessly regurgitating sub-optimal existing patterns and habits that are often better discarded on the rubbish heap of history.

These are things I’ve found interesting between February 12th through February 16th:

Lean UX, Product Stewardship, and Integrated Teams – I appreciate this as an attempt to get design more tightly integrated in driving the product vision. And I love the emphasis on iteration and testing. Sometimes I wonder however if 90% of it is getting a good designer cross trained in business and iterative development and not getting in their way. Design talent is A) rare and B) is rarely given the power/support to shine.